...AND ANOTHER THING: Thumbs-up for Facebook’s thumbs-down plans

So billionaire online entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg has decided, after a lot of research, that Facebook will soon have a ‘dislike’ option to post online.

It’s being road tested as we speak and the results should be back soon (errr..why??)

It is, as he says, for people to show empathy when someone posts a negative or sad bit of personal news.

Yeah right, Mark. We believe you.

Maybe he, like the rest of us, is sick to death of knowing what that person you sat next to at school during one chemistry lesson is having for brunch, or that they are going to the gym, or fed-up of hearing how clever their child is because he can now spell his name in dried pasta and glue...and he’s only 16.

It’s fair to say we’ve all wanted to dislike the annoying posts that seem to plague us every other minute. It’s surely the main reason why people choose to close their accounts on Facebook.

In saying that, in an online world where our popularity is measured by how many ‘friends’ we have on this social media phenomenon, there’s probably only a daring few who would actually use it for these reasons.

I have to admit, it does feel wrong giving the thumbs-up to a post when negative news is dropped on. “There’s a paedophile on the loose in our town”...**like**

“I’ve only got six months to live”... **like**

So, if Zuckerberg’s reasons for this new addition are to be believed, then why not respond with a carefully-worded message instead of an unsubtle click of a ‘dislike’ button.

Imagine being in the pub and your mate telling you his parent had just died...staying silent and just giving him a thumbs down? Hardly empathetic or sympathetic is it?

Common courtesy is to actually speak back to them.

That would mean having to think for ourselves, and that’s far too much to expect.